Info-3b2 Digest, Number 24

[Info-3b2 Mailing List]

                           Info-3b2 Digest, Number 24
 
                          Saturday, October 15th 1988
 
Today's Topics:
 
                              Re: Devtools/idtools
                                 3.1.1 -> 3.2.1
                                various 3B2 stuff
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 88 17:40:17 BST
Subject: Re: Devtools/idtools
From: hoptoad!quaduk!graham (Graham Glen)

> 
> Fairly reliable rumors are that idtools will not format > 1024
> cylinders, so there is a limit of about 140MB on drives.  We're
> getting a Maxtor 1140 (1024cyl x 15 heads) tomorrow or so and
> will report our findings to this list.  We have formatted 72MB
> CDC drives with no difficulty.
> 

If it uses the same formatter as DEVTOOLS then it wont cope with more than
1024 cylinders, it looks as if it does but it seems to wrap around and go
back over the first cylinders where the bad block table VTOC etc are.

We use 190Mb Maxtor's (1224 cylinders) and those are formatted up to use
1024 cylinders.

Our drives came with software to format and run them on a PC. Which set me
wondering whether I could format them (fully) on a PC, and then patch in a
VTOC for the 3B. I haven't so far attempted this because apart from the
time required (plus the loss of service) I have no idea whether the device
driver on the 3B itself can support more that 1024 cylinders.

Anyone at AT&T with access to the drivers care to comment?

Graham

------------------------------
 
Subject: 3.1.1 -> 3.2.1
Date: 13 Oct 88 16:28:54 CDT (Thu)
From: lll-tis!lll-crg!uunet!mcmi!denny (Dennis Page)

Has anyone done the 3.1.1 -> 3.2.1 upgrade?  We are looking at doing
so and would like to know what all's been fixed or added.

Denny

------------------------------
 
From: ucsfmis!ide!uunet!vsi!friedl
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 88 20:12:08 EDT
Subject: various 3B2 stuff

Hi Folks,

     I've been diddling with installing hard drives on 3B2s and
have a few questions plus a few answers related to this.

*    WARNING: the instructions that Congruent Technologies
     supplies for installation of their expansion drives in the
     /400 cabinet may be incorrect.  It is their contention that
     in a two-drive setup, the upper drive is the one that has
     the resistor pack - this is not always the case.  It appears
     that there are multiple ways of cabling the drives in a
     /400, and in their units the cables route up from the
     bottom, so the upper drive is at the end of the cable --
     ours don't work this way.

     To sum up, the terminator goes in the drive at the physical
     end of the daisy-chained control cable (the wide one)
     regardless of drive-select numbering.

*    I've installed a 72MB drive in an XM unit in a 3B2/310.  I
     installed the resistor pack in the new drive, and I was in a
     quandry about the little SIP resistor pack inside the 310.
     I removed it but now am pretty sure that was not The Right
     Thing.  Does anybody know how the terminator in drive zero
     gets disabled when a second drive is installed?

*    Does anybody know for *certain* that the idtools software
     will not format a drive with > 1024 cylinders?

*    What's the largest disk capacity available in 1024 cylinders
     (even if some are wasted)? I would imagine it would be 15
     heads x 18 sectors/track x 1024 cylinders = ~135MB.

*    We have just installed a Maxtor 1140 drive (140 MB, 120MB
     formatted) as the primary drive on our 3B2/400.  Total cost
     was $1600 for the drive plus $50 or so for the (reusable)
     formatting utilities, and once we are sure this is working
     fine we will pass along full instructions on how to do this.
     We've also figured out how to make the configuration
     printout (from /etc/prtconf) say `120 Megabyte disk', and
     this will be included also.

     I say this now in case anybody is imminently thinking about
     a second drive - call me first.  I look to post the full
     details in a couple of weeks.

     Questions/comments on any of this are encouraged either
through this list, via private email, or a phone call (number
below).

     Steve

--- 
Steve Friedl    V-Systems, Inc.  +1 714 545 6442    3B2-kind-of-guy
friedl at vsi.com     {backbones}!vsi.com!friedl    attmail!vsi!friedl
---------Nancy Reagan on the Three Stooges: "Just say Moe"---------

 
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